45.06, a 67% drop, while nearly tripling the number of conversions from 20 to 54.88, according to a paid-search case study published by Iunisov. The win came not from a budget increase, but from the opposite: the firm reduced ad spend by 9% overall and wrung far more qualified leads from the same or smaller budget.
The shift wasn't a single lever. The consultancy rewrote its Google Ads campaigns from the ground up: tighter keyword targeting to eliminate broad matches that attracted searchers who weren't serious buyers, stricter bidding to stop overpaying for weak prospects, and new landing pages designed to match the actual intent behind each search.
Most accounts leak money at three points. Keywords cast too wide a net. Bids chase traffic without checking whether that traffic converts. Landing pages repeat ad copy instead of solving the problem the searcher is already primed to care about. Fix all three, and the same budget buys cheaper, better qualified leads.
174%
increase in conversions (from 20 to 54.88)
67%
reduction in cost per conversion (A$437.08 to A
45.06)
9%
reduction in total ad spend
Why This Matters for Your Business If you're running Google Ads, you're paying for every click. But not every click turns into a customer, and some clicks cost you more to convert than others. A high cost per conversion doesn't always mean you need to spend less, it usually means you're attracting the wrong clicks or losing prospects once they land on your page.
Keyword drift compounds over months. You add related terms to cast a wider net, but broader keywords pull bargain hunters and tire-kickers who never had intent to buy. Your bid algorithm learns to chase volume instead of value. Landing pages stay generic because they've always worked okay. None of this breaks overnight. It just means you're paying twice as much to land a customer as you should.
The Real Opportunity
Most accounts have a 60-70% cost-per-conversion gap hiding in plain sight: loose keywords, misaligned bids, and landing pages built for impressions instead of conversions. Closing that gap doesn't require bigger budgets or better offers. It requires discipline.
How to Spot the Leak in Your Own Account Pull your top 50 keywords and ask: would I use this exact phrase if I were the customer? If the answer is no or maybe, it's too broad. Calculate your cost per conversion for the last 90 days. If it's higher than your gross margin on a typical sale, something is wrong. Look at your landing pages. Do they repeat your ad copy, or do they address the specific problem your ad promised to solve? Most repeat the ad. Check your bid strategy. Are you using automated bidding set to maximize clicks? If so, you're paying for volume, not outcomes. The Australian consultancy's case study works because it stacks three improvements: keyword tightening removes the tire-kickers, bid adjustment stops chasing those tire-kickers, and landing-page rewrites turn remaining prospects into customers. Running only one of those three will help. Running all three compounds the win.
